HERE'S TO YOU, TRISH

I find it interesting that on the tail end of guest blogger Richard Mabry's post on coping with grief that I am now coping with grief myself. Just yesterday I received a phone call notifying me that a very dear friend was lost to cancer this week.

I had only known Trish for little more than a year but in that year even when she was struggling with cancer, we became close. We had celebrated her healing, believing she was in remission when Jeff and I picked up and moved away from CA to NC in November of 2007 to start our coffee shop ministry (http://www.javajourney.org).

Several months later I had the oddest urging to call Trish. Inwardly I think I sensed what the call confirmed. Miraculously I got a hold of Trish despite the three hour time difference. That's when I learned that her cancer had returned.

Trish responded in her usual cheerful voice telling me that things had been really bad for a while but that she was feeling better. If anyone could lick this thing, she could. But healing was not meant to be. Just a few weeks later I was notified that she was sent home by doctors. There was nothing more they could do. Yesterday came the phone call. Trish had lost the fight.

She will be greatly missed but I celebrate that Trish knew Christ very intimately. Those she left behind have a peace knowing she's in the arms of the Father. Trish taught me several things, how to laugh, even when you're going through a life and death battle, how to be a servant, volunteering her time to help out in the church office, even cleaning the church bathrooms when they asked small groups to volunteer to help. Most of all she taught me how to seize the day with zest. She was the most positive, upbeat, energetic person I have ever known.

So, here's to you, Trish, for being an inspiration, for making our lives a little brighter, even if it was just for a short time.

I urge our blog readers to take a moment to post a tribute comment to someone you've lost who inspired you.